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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Mirror Darkly: My Reflections on Researching Ancient Aliens

Reflection on Ancient Aliens

This blog has had its share of UFO and alien related blog posts. Though in all of them i have tried to demonstrate a Christian perspective, i have frankly had my fill of aliens and so-themed blogs for a while. So, this post is announcing my moratorium on blogs about UFOs, aliens and the like UNLESS i get a specific leading from the Lord. So who knows, there may be one next week. But i'm not planning any more for now.

That said, i wanted to maybe reflect on my experiences debunking Ancient Aliens. Though much of the work i've done on that doesn't really point back to Jesus directly, hopefully it shows that a follower of Jesus is dedicated to truth. The truth is that the ancient astronaut theory (and by proxy ancient high-technology theory) has been proven to be a lie.

My experience with ancient aliens goes back to my teenage years, and maybe further. Perhaps my whole life has been covered by its shadow. As a child i watched Star Wars ("long time ago, galaxy far far away) and Transformers (they are robotic aliens who crashed in prehistoric times) so the seed was always there. In my later years, it got me wondering if fact shared anything with fiction.

As a teen, i was introduced to the works of Erich von Daniken. I'm not sure how, i probably saw his books at the library. I've never been one to read a whole book from their, so i probably looked at the pictures and captions and bought into the ancient astronaut lie there. This was further reinforced through Fate magazine, the videogame Illusion of Gaia and numerous science fiction novels.

Into adulthood, even after becoming a Christian i recall reading a book on time travel which cemented the idea that there were OOPARTs (out of place artifacts) so the idea of time travel and/or ancient aliens was stuck even deeper.

However, once my faith had withered from 2004 - 2008 or somewhere in there, i repented and turned back to Jesus Christ and I re-learned that aliens were a demonic deception through Joe Jordan's, Rev. Radio and LA Marzulli's work among others but then what about these OOPARTs? Though there weren't aliens, i wondered if the ancients were merely super smart. Especially since some Christian theories allow ancient high-technology on account of fallen angels giving it to us or through nephilim-einsteins.

How else can we explain the pyramids, ancient structures (Baalbek) and clear proof of ancient flight? Nephilim and angels of course. Just swap out aliens for fallen angels/nephilim, and i can keep my comfortable world view of an ancient sci-fi world

Same lie, different cause.

After researching even just a few ancient alien claims in-depth, i've had to completely reject the entire concept of ancient high-technology. The evidence for AA is the same for high technology (from angels) and unfortunately the evidence is completely ridiculous.

I've found that all of the evidence for both theories to be at best, a misrepresentation or of a given event/evidence and at worst (and more often than not) a complete fabrication. Facts are taken out of context or embellished. Often they are just made up.

The saqqara bird and Tolima figures are completely taken out of context. The skyanchor stories are too, as they are contained right next to stories about sailors dropping knives in the sea only to land on their kitchen table back home.

Space suit figures shown on TV, when viewed from a different angle have skin showing and toes.

Meanwhile sitchin makes up his own translations and uses 25 year old plaster statues and von daniken use sci-fi magazine pictures as cave paintings.

Even worse, the theories and evidence contradict each other. Sure, aliens may need space suits to get through space (unless they've heard of pressurized ships like our space shuttle), but how is it they need one in our atmosphere? They don't breathe oxygen? OK, then how do they get their pants of do mate with human women? The whole point of a space suit is to protect the body.

And how many kinds of aliens supposedly have their fingers in our pie? Each theory proposes a new species, surely one ET experiment is already a stretch, the dozens or hundreds already out there make it even more so, especially when each one (or at least several) claim to have made us? Each individual Kachina of the Pueblo looks completely different, and those differ from the aliens in Egypt and so on and so on

They can't all have created us, and by the way. Who created the aliens?

So, with all of that said, the ancient alien theory offers no concrete answers merely half-truths and contradictions. It also offers no hope. After all, the aliens merely made us from apes to be a slave race. Great. If we're lucky enough to even have souls, then when we die all we have to look forward to is endless reincarnations. If we're lucky, we'll evolve to another rung on the ladder. Except the ladder is endless, and we are finite.

But the Bible on the other hand, tells us exactly where we come from and why we're screwed up. It also tells us how to fix the screw up - Jesus Christ. It also tells us exactly where we are going. And by the way, God's plan of redemption through Jesus Christ was foretold innumerable ways in the old testament, both through symbolism (covering nakedness with animal coverings, serpent in the wilderness) and encoded (the names of all of the patriarchs. Check out Chuck Missler's take on that) all CENTURIES before they happened.

Like atheism, the big bang theory, and evolution it takes more faith to believe in the ancient alien theory than it does to believe what it says in the Bible. The AA theory has proven itself wrong time and time again, or at best proven that there is a shadow of a doubt.

The Bible on the other hand has a proven track record across MILLENIA. To paraphrase Chuck Missler "66 books by 40 author written across centuries and yet there are consistant idioms and symbolism tying each book together.

Jesus Christ is the only hope for man kind, His Word, the Bible is the only possible explanation for what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.

10 comments:

Wow... I gotta tip my hat to you Frank, you have invested a lot of time and effort into researching this stuff, and the observations you have made have been very thought provoking. I can understand you wanting to step away from it tho, at least for a while. I mean, I get burned out from digging into some of this stuff for even an hour! There definitely is a lot of disinfo out there, and it can be so mentally draining to be constantly sifting through it. Overall, I think you made some very solid cases to show why the von Daniken AA theory is seriously flawed.

I must say however, that I was a little surprised when I read this part:

"Though there weren't aliens, i wondered if the ancients were merely super smart. Especially since some Christian theories allow ancient high-technology on account of fallen angels giving it to us or through nephilim-einsteins.

How else can we explain the pyramids, ancient structures (Baalbek) and clear proof of ancient flight? Nephilim and angels of course. Just swap out aliens for fallen angels/nephilim, and i can keep my comfortable world view of an ancient sci-fi world

Same lie, different cause.

After researching even just a few ancient alien claims in-depth, i've had to completely reject the entire concept of ancient high-technology. The evidence for AA is the same for high technology (from angels) and unfortunately the evidence is completely ridiculous."

I guess I'm just not entirely clear by what you mean when you talk about rejecting the entire concept of "ancient high-technology"... By that do you mean that you are more rejecting the idea that the ancients had things like flying machines or computers and such? Or are you distancing yourself from the broader "Genesis 6 paradigm", and the whole idea that fallen angels descended and had some level of involvement with the developement of early "civilization"? (i.e., are you more or less saying that the "Sons of God" = "sons of Seth"...?)

Sure, I guess what I mean is that previously, I had thought the nephilim and fallen angels may have given us a lot of high technology. Flight, levitation, etc. But since studying this AA stuff, I have to dismiss the high technology.

I would still find it plausible that the "Watchers" did trade information for women. I would also agree that many of those structures are without a doubt occult in origin and purpose. It's just instead of an airplane, they gave us some knowledge on how to build pyramids.

Sons of God is definitely fallen angels in my opinion, I've kind of always thought that, but the case is well-made for angels, and non-sensical for sons of seth.

I think they gave us technologies that furthered their agenda. They provided means to beautify ourselves with makeup and jewelry to feed our pride and vanity. They taught us how to cut herbs and such, most likely for divination and mind altercation, so they we depend on things other than God and open our souls to possession. They taught us meditation and new age practices.-hopeful watcher

Just curious really, not trying to make it a super contentious issue or anything, (since I totally agree that "Jesus Christ is the only hope for man kind, His Word, the Bible is the only possible explanation for what happened in the past and what will happen in the future"). But, just because people like von Daniken talk about the "gods" wearing spacesuits and stuff like that, doesn't mean that the Christian perspective on the "Watchers" would necessarily believe in those kinds of details, right? I mean, I don't believe that places like Persepolis or the Mayan pyramids were originally created as "landing pads" for some kind of craft, but at the same time I really can't deny that such places have incredible occult significance. I do believe that many of these ancient structures/"monolithic sites" were constructed with very intentional properties and purposes in mind, not for space travel, but rather for developing various means of engaging the supernatural realm in a more "enhanced" way. I also, when considering many of these ancient monolithic structures, have been increasingly convinced that at least some of them, in all likelihood, do predate the flood. (Particularly when you look at places like the temples on the island of Malta, and the wagon tracks that go right down into the ocean...) So, in my thinking, I suppose there still is plenty of room for the possibility of certain levels of "high-technology" before the flood, especially if there were fallen angels with all kinds of knowledge about astronomy, physics and genetics, who were messing about with the affairs of men... (and Gen. 6 doesn't say anything about spacesuits, so I pretty much assume they didn't need them!) Who knows how they built that stuff. Whether it was all ropes, logs and pulleys, or there was a labor force of super strong giants, or even lasers, or whatever, I think the fact remains that in the very least, it seems pretty apparent that the concepts for all these constructions, and the incredible motivation required to build them, did not simply pop into men's heads by themselves...

But anyways, I guess I'm just trying to get a grasp on whether or not you basically view the von Daniken-type version of the antediluvian era as being mostly overlapping with the Christian, Gen. 6 version, or do you see some marked distinctions between them?

No worries. I agree that there was some supernatural funny business and definite occult significance for the structures. The landing pad idea is absurd as you say.

What I guess I'm rejecting is ancient "modern" technology. Ancient airplanes, elecricity (though that may be debatable), computers, "manna mcahines" and stuff like that. I would also maybe reject most AA theorists as hostile witnesses because they project their AA bias into ancient things where it really has no place. Von daniken (in one of my articles) has at least 3 known fraudulent AA claims, and one regular fraud, which in my mind disqualifies him as a truthful source of any type.

I guess the only area where I still am left wondering about ancient "high tech", is when it comes to the whole question of how the "Watchers" might have actually gone about manipulating the DNA of say, animals or even plants, if indeed that was what happened... Still don't quite understand how that could've been achieved, without, ya know, test tubes and computers and everything...

Overall tho, yeah, I agree that the AA thing is a super bogus spin on whatever really happened...

Very interesting site. This is actually why I came here refered from Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country site. I finally went to someone about an abduction experience I had at 16 after deciding that there was more to this than a bad dream. But you are not talking about it anymore and that is fine because this site is much more important than just discussing aliens, fallen angels...or whatever they are.

Thanks for your comments Doug, it's great having you here. I'm also flattered that this is somehow on Strieber's site. The Lord moves most surely!

If you're interested in more of my alien articles, there's a bunch here. I'm not totally done with aliens, but for now I've had my fill. I don't know what else I can say beyond what has been said here already, and beyond the work of those more dedicated to the field than I.

Guy Malone's recent VFTB interview was really good, i'd check that out and share that with the strieber site!

Also, if you'd like to share your abduction experience here please feel free as a comment, even better if your salvation by Jesus Christ affected it in any way.